Building new commercial partnerships for the manufacturing of Commonwealth Fusion Systems' products

In a significant breakthrough for the fusion energy industry, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has managed to overcome a critical supply chain challenge that has long plagued the sector – the production of high-temperature superconducting tape, a key component for building reactors powerful enough for commercial use.

CFS, currently facing new engineering challenges as it builds SPARC, its demonstration reactor in Massachusetts, and plans ARC, its first commercial power plant in Virginia, has been at the forefront of this development. The company's modular design calls for 18 large magnets, each containing 16 pancake-shaped coils made from this superconducting tape.

The German company Proxima Fusion has joined forces with CFS in the development and manufacturing of this high-temperature superconductor on a massive scale. Collaborating with expertise from the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), they aim to advance quasi-isodynamic stellarators and HTS technology for fusion power plants.

The crux of the challenge lay in the copper cap, designed by CFS to protect the superconducting tape and maintain its electrical homogeneity. After six months of intense work, CFS built its own oven for the baking process, solving the copper cap problem. The team of skilled welders then fabricated copper caps for each magnet.

CFS's innovative approach improved the economics and quality control of tape production. By finding ways to use various material types, including lower-quality ones, and helping the manufacturer redesign its production process, they increased the tape's availability. This breakthrough enabled CFS to build a demonstration magnet that proved its tokamak design concept to investors.

The success of this magnet led directly to CFS's $1.8 billion Series B funding round three months later. Today, the company is producing one pancake per day, a testament to their manufacturing efficiency.

However, the manufacturing efficiency of pancake production will determine whether fusion can compete economically with other clean energy sources. CFS believes it can eventually reach $50 per megawatt-hour through economies of scale in both tape production and magnet manufacturing.

Breakthrough innovations in climate technology often require building entirely new supply chains and manufacturing capabilities. CFS's advice to other climate tech startups is to "focus relentlessly on your next critical de-risking" and to ensure people understand the importance of their technology.

The success of CFS illustrates the challenges faced by climate technology companies in building new supply chains and manufacturing capabilities. The company's collaboration with Proxima Fusion and the manufacturer increased the market's capacity to manufacture the tape by 40 times over just a few years.

In September 2021, CFS successfully tested its HTS magnet at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, marking a significant step forward in the pursuit of fusion energy. This breakthrough serves as a beacon of hope for a future where fusion could provide a virtually limitless, clean, and sustainable source of energy.